176 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



punishments. Slaps may be needful in the early stages, even 

 though they do lead to little tussles ; a mother assures me that 

 these battles with her several children have all fallen between 

 the ages of sixteen months and two years. It is, however, con- 

 ceivable that such fights might be avoided altogether ; yet a man 

 should be chary of dogmatizing on this delicate matter. 



What is beyond doubt is that the slovenly discipline if in- 

 deed discipline it is to be called which consists in alternations of 

 gushing fondness with almost savage severity, or fits of govern- 

 ment and restraint interpolated between long periods of neglect 

 and laisser faire, is precisely what develops the rebellious and 

 law-resisting propensities. But discipline can be bad without 

 being a stupid pretense. Everything in the shape of inconsist- 

 ency, saying one thing at One time, another thing at another, or 

 treating one child in one fashion, another in another, tends to 

 undermine the pillars of authority. Young eyes are quick to note 

 these little contradictions, and they sorely resent them. It is 

 astonishing how careless disciplinarians can show themselves be- 

 fore these astute little critics. It is the commonest thing to tell 

 a child to behave like his elders, forgetting that this, if indeed a 

 rule at all, can only be one of very limited application. Here is a 

 suggestive example of the effect of this sort of teaching sent me 

 by a mother : " At three years and six months, when some visitors 

 were present, she was told not to talk at dinner time. ' Why me 

 no talk ? Papa talks.' ' Yes, but papa is grown up and you are 

 only a little girl ; you can't do just like grown-up people.' She 

 was silent for some time, but when I told her ten minutes later to 

 sit nicely with her hands on her lap like her cousins, she replied, 

 with a very humorous smile, * Me tan't (can't) sit like grown-up 

 people, me is only a little girl.'" 



We can fail and make children disloyal instead of loyal sub- 

 jects by unduly magnifying our office, by insisting too much on 

 our authority. Children who are over- ruled, who have no taste 

 of being left unmolested and free to do what they like, can hardly 

 be expected to submit graciously. Another way of carrying 

 parental control to excess is by exacting displays of virtue which 

 are beyond the moral capabilities of the child. A lady sends me 

 this reminiscence of her childhood : She had been promised six- 

 pence when she could play her scales without fault, and succeeded 

 in the exploit on her sixth birthday. The sixpence was given to 

 her, but soon after her mother suggested that she should spend 

 the sixpence in fruit to give to her (the mother's) invalid friend. 

 This was offending the sense of justice, for if the child, is jealous 

 of anything as her very own, it is surely the reward she has 

 earned ; and was, moreover, a foolish attempt to call forth gen- 

 erosity where generosity was wholly out of place. An even 



